Gauntlet Restoration / De-Conversion

ckasek

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I picked up a Crime Fighters game earlier this year that was in a Gauntlet cab. Initially I intended to just swap out the Crime Fighters and pop in my TMNT board, but after finding the original Gauntlet CPO buried underneath the Crime Fighters CPO AND a Gauntlet II CPO, I thought what the heck, let's just restore it back to it's original form.

This is what I started with, and what it has become:

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This is going to be a pretty big undertaking.

- all new wiring, including the control panel (DONE)
- Restore the original Gauntlet CPO (DONE)
- replacement Gauntlet PCB and sound amp (Purchased)
- new Gauntlet marquee and coin door graphic (Purchased)
- new lipped t-molding for the control panel (Purchased)
- new t-molding for the cabinet (Purchased)
- new locks (Purchased)
- Repaint or vinyl the cabinet
- Hope that the tall sideart gets reprinted
- rebuild all four atari logo joysticks (DONE)

Huge thanks to Sean1976 for all his help in getting me all the wiring harnesses I needed, as well as helping me through getting it all wired up correctly.
 
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So the first thing I tackled was the control panel. I could see hints of the gauntlet CPO underneath, and wasn't sure what shape it might be in. There was only one way to find out, so I busted out the heat gun and went to work.

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Well, how about that. There was a Gauntlet II CPO underneath. But, this is not the CPO i am looking for, so it must go as well. At this point, I disassembled the control panel so I could work with it easier. After a bit more work, I got to this:

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And finally after lots of goo gone and scrubbing, it's a real nice looking control panel again:
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Lookin' good, I did the same with my Gauntlet 2, peeled off the discolored control panel and found a perfect Gauntlet 1 beneath. A lot of work, but the end result was worth it.
 
I need to replace the lipped t molding on my gauntlet control panel, could you point me in the direction of where you bought it. Is it the stuff 13/16 lipped molding that tmolding.com has?
 
Yeah, I ordered it from t-molding.com. I ordered a sample first and was happy with how it looked. I'll try and snap a pic and post it.
 
Control panel looks good, I need to give mine a good scrub. Did you just use regular goo gone, and did you use a magice eraser on it? Goo gone didn't do any damage to the cpo I take it by the looks of it?
 
I used Goo Gone Spray Gel on the CPO, and used the little plastic scraper that came with it. It didn't do any damage as far as I can tell, though I think some did get underneath the CPO around the bolt holes, as I can see it bubbling up in a few spots..nothing major though.

I haven't used a magic eraser on it, but I might, at least around the edges where there looks to be a black line from where the lipped t-molding would have been.
 
So today I took the magic eraser to the CP, and was able to get most of the black line off that you can see around the border of the control panel in one of the images up above. There are still hints of it, but it is much less noticeable.

I took a pic of the t-molding sample, I'll get it posted up tomorrow once I have a chance to get pics off the camera.

I also got the bezel off the monitor and gave it a good scrubbing. It's scary how much filth was coming off that thing, even after scrubbing it several times. I was using some soft scrub so that I had a very mild abrasive to get the dirt out since it's not a smooth surface, but it left it a bit dulled. So, I hit it with some car wax, and restored some of the shine to it. Might give it a second coat tomorrow.

Definitely do not use a brillo pad - i figured it would be too rough, so i tested it on a hidden spot. Sure enough, it will trash the bezel if you try.
 
I got the lipped t-molding today, so I installed it on the CP. Notching the t-molding was fine to go around corners, but you also need to notch the lip otherwise it will bind up. I'm not totally happy with how it came out.

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I'm gonna have to go back with a razor blade to smooth things out.
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Thanks for posting the pics, I heard from others that they had the same issues with the corners on the top lip.Still looks good and there isn't much other choice of molding to use out there. I am going to have to pick up some of that molding to do my control panel. I have the same issue with my monitor bezel looking dull after I cleaned it,I will have to try the car wax to see if that helps it.
 
I never could find a place to get the lipped T-molding for the Gauntlet CP.
Arcadeshop has some, but the problem is when you apply it to the CP the corners beau up and it looks like shit.
Hopefully you have better luck than I did. :(
 
So I finally scraped off all the adhesive left behind from the crime fighters marquee graphic and got the new gauntlet graphic applied. I was really surprised at how thick the material is it is printed on...ordered from Arcade Overlays.

After removing the Crime Fighters overlay, thought it was funny that you could see the Gauntlet logo if the light shone right.
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And the new overlay applied:
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Looking great!

For my CP new T lipped molding, I used a heat gun on low and slowly applied heat as I didn't notch the edges. For the most part, the heat (gently applied on and off until the plastic shrinks to the form of the bends) made it look nearly factory.
 
nice, maybe i'll have to try that..of course, this t-molding has already been notched, but if I place another order in the future maybe I'll give it a shot. I'm not really happy with how it looks, so it could be redone i the future.
 
Great work, I can't wait to see the rest of this. Gotta love the Crime Fighter artwork, that was pure 80's cheese. I actually remember playing Crime Fighters, it was a fun game for it's time, it can't touch Gauntlet, but it was fun.
 
Great work, I can't wait to see the rest of this. Gotta love the Crime Fighter artwork, that was pure 80's cheese. I actually remember playing Crime Fighters, it was a fun game for it's time, it can't touch Gauntlet, but it was fun.

Hah, yeah I had friends over a few weeks back and we all got a laugh out of the artwork. Especially this guy:

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The crime fighters side art is no more..I removed it tonight, so there are no traces left of Crime Fighters on the cabinet. Overall the sides are in great shape. Very little patching I'll have to do, just a few scratches. I'll probably just spray it with a semi-gloss black and wait to see if the full sideart gets printed later this year.
 
Finally got the cabinet out into the garage this weekend. I sprayed the sides with Goo Gone to get off any leftover adhesive from the crime fighters art, then sanded a bit to get out any light scratches and give myself a good surface for painting. Patched any bad areas with bondo, and tomorrow I'll paint it.

I plan on using Rustoleum High-Performance Enamel in a semi-gloss black, or perhaps just their regular enamel. I had the high-perf already so that was what I sprayed the front of the cabinet with.

Kinda wondering what to re-attach the plastic monitor bezel with. The screws that were in there were horribly rusted and stripped. It was a nightmare getting them out, so I definitely need to find new screws to put it back on. Probably will swap out the hex screws on the marquee as well, too much hassle in a home-use environment and they were all pretty rusty.
 
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